III. Minutes from last
meeting were approved at 3:39 p.m. with the two
corrections introduced by Fung.

IV. Reports from
the Presidents

A. Senate
President Janeanne
Rockwell-Kincanon read a letter by Provost John Minahan addressing the Senators
concerning the absence of some student athletes during Finals Week and the
adverse effects of the academic standing to these athletes. It was decided that this would be brought up
in the different academic divisions and then further action will be taken
depending on the received feedback.

B. President
Conn reminded the Senators that the Strategic Planning process is on its way
and some of the sub-committees are busy meeting. The campus is kept informed
about the progress of this crucial process, via e-mail and a web-site. The
second point the President made concerned the VPA search. He announced that now
all divisions are represented in the search process and we have the largest
number of faculty involved in a search process at WOU. Then President Conn
addressed budgetary issues. If Measure 30 fails, WOU would lose approximately
$600,000 and our reserves will dwindle even further. It was suggested that we
focus on fundraising (contingent upon getting the position of Alumni Director
filled). Finally, President Conn shared Judy J. Vanderburg's Memorandum to the
Administrative Bargaining Team regarding teaching loads. He urged the Senators
to keep in mind that a three-hour reduction would create an 8 and 1/3 percent
reduction in WOU's instructional capacity.

C. The ASWOU
president Jeremy Quintanilla was ill but he will present the updated version on
the document on shared communication at the next meeting. He also passed along
his thanks to the faculty for announcing the books for the winter courses at
the end of fall term.

V. Consideration
of Old Business

A. The student
presentation on shared communication was tabled for the next meeting.

B. The content
of the Ad Hoc Professional Programs committee was reviewed. There was a motion
to adopting the guidelines in this document and charge the Curriculum Committee
with following these guidelines. The motion was carried with one abstention.

C. The Senators
reviewed the proposal by the Graduate Committee that changes the process of
admission to candidacy slightly for some of the graduate students. If the
graduate program requires professional recommendation letters as a part of the
admissions process (and only a small number of programs do have this
requirement), it was proposed that after a student in such a program completes
12 credit hours of graduate level work, he or she can be admitted to candidacy
based on the admissions letters and the opinion of the student's advisor. The
motion to modify the general policy for admission to candidacy was carried
unanimously.

D. Next the
Senators turned their attention to two outstanding curricular issues.

a)The Economics
Proposal to change all their offerings from 3-to 4-credit classes was
discussed. The question of the impact of this change on other majors and
programs was brought up. It was explained that the switch should create at most
a 1-credit difference, and it will not affect most programs of study. This
proposal was carried with one abstention.

b)The BFA in Theatre proposal was introduced as
a response to the needfor another
program of this type in Oregon. Currently,
only SOU has such a program and they have to turn students down for space
considerations. WOU's BFA program is to be a conservatory-style professional program,
similar in spirit to the B. Music degree, with the initial goal of graduating
about 7-10 students per year. This program will not require a budget expansion
and it is to grow in size and hopefully get accredited by the National
Association of Schools of Theatre. This extensive proposal was tabled for the
next meeting.

VI. Consideration
of New Business

A. The Dean of
the School of Education
Dr. Hilda Rosselli gave an update on the Provost's
search process. She said that as of January 13th there were 20 files
cleared for review by the Search Committee and some candidates had been
eliminated on the basis of 3 important criteria: Ph. D. in an area that
correlates to WOU's faculty; evidence of extensive teaching and scholarship
experience; significant administrative experience. Six candidates were removed
from the first round and it is the hope of the committee that the list will be
narrowed down to 10-12 candidates. These candidates will then be
team-interviewed by phone, and their references will be checked. Then the
Advisory Panel is going to provide input on the best 3-5 candidates by the
third or fourth week in February. Three candidates will be invited to campus
for a two-day visit. The Advisory Panel will interview each of these finalists.
Information on each candidate will be shared with the faculty and insight from
the whole WOU community will be appreciated. The hope is that the Search
Committee will have a recommendation on the finalist to President Conn by the
end of April.

VII. Report of IFS

The latest meeting of IFS
happened on December 5th and 6th at PSU. The new Board of
Higher Education was yet to be appointed and the IFS President expressed his
uncertainty as what the new members will contribute to the debate of accessibility,
quality, and integration of education provided by the OUS system with community
colleges. Most of the latest meeting was occupied with the discussion of the
reduction of the contributions to the Optional Retirement Plan. There is a
strong interest in having the ORP reduction reversed and an immediate
administrative solution was demanded from the Chancellor and his staff. There
was also a proposal to de-couple ORP into PERS employer contribution rates. The
IFS website will have reports on updates of this process.

Our very own Dr. Bob Turner
is the President Elect of IFS!

VIII. This report
was tabled for the next meeting.

IX. A motion to
extend time by 15 minutes was approved and the extra time was used up. A motion
to adjourn was approved around 5:15 p.m.